Thursday, April 15, 2010

Columbia Sportswear

Being in West Palm beach with work colleagues isn't a hot bed for style as you can easily imagine (mad pleats yo), but the one thing I have noticed is that Columbia Sportswear makes a pretty mean sport shirt. While you could complain about fit and how it's not the "coolest" label in the world, I really like the aesthetics and functionality of the shirts. Seeing the shirts on a few guys with their various vents and pockets has even reminded me of brands like Woolrich Woolen Mills who are making similar detail loaded shirts, though not as technical, for the style minded set. I'm even at the point where since the shirts hit right under the $50 mark I might size down to a small and see how they work out - no lie. I'm not expecting anyone to fall head over heels in love with Columbia Sportswear since there are a few missteps overall (missteps is probably the wrong word since most of the people reading this are not the targeted demographic here), but it's interesting to see the stylistic parallels that exist even when brands aren't trying to ape each other and steal market share. Pair this up with some slim chinos and canvas sneakers for the highly coveted "coolest dad in the world on vacation" look.

I live on the Texas coast and these Columbia shirts are everywhere, the functionality of these shirts is great for hot humid Texas weather. Yes you must size down 1 or even 2 sizes these bad boys run huge. I do a lot of wade fishing on the coast and these shirts are the standard uniform.

As a girl, if I saw someone wearing this shirt as a normal piece of clothing, I would think twice. As others have stated, hot and humid weather would be the only other occasion to wear this if you're not fishing or the like. Just sayin.